


It's A Wonder (You Haven't Blown Up Yet)

by ObsidianJade



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man 3 (2013), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Extremis, Gen, PTSD, Spoilers - IM3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 08:26:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/783945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsidianJade/pseuds/ObsidianJade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short conversation about life, death, and excelling at stupid decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's A Wonder (You Haven't Blown Up Yet)

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the end of the movie, between Tony fixing Pepper’s Extremis and his surgery. 
> 
> If it makes no sense, blame lack of sleep and a migraine. Or possibly the fact that I am constitutionally incapable of making sense sometimes.
> 
> I *AM* working on both TCWAA and Expect. Just... not very fast or very effectively, I'm afraid. You'll have them as soon as I can manage it.

Predictably, the first words out of Tony’s mouth are “Great job you guys did of keeping Pepper safe.”

A weary sigh answers him from the doorway of his current workshop. “I was in Kabul,” comes the terse reply. “The people responsible for her monitoring have been reprimanded.” There’s exhaustion clinging to the edges of the words, and Tony recalls with a flash of something that might be guilt that Cap had said - when Tony had called New York to assure them of his continued existence and receive his requisite _‘you have a team now you idiot, stop dealing with all of this yourself’_ dressing-down - something about Hawkeye being in Medical after an external mission. 

Tony lies back in his seat - it might have been a dentist’s chair, a lifetime ago? - and wiggles his fingers through the holographic projection above him, contemplative. He’d done enough work on Extremis that it should be possible....

“How many times have you died?” He asks the question over his shoulder, careless tone and heavy words, pretending he can hear more than silence from where the other man stands.

“I’ve lost count,” comes the eventual reply, quiet and wearily honest, and Tony thinks about waking up in the night without the breath to scream, sheets soaked with sweat and spots of blood from where his fingernails had torn into his palms. 

“Doesn’t it bother you?” he asks quietly, hands stilling in midair, twined in the arc reactor and the shrapnel that’s still trying to tear through his damaged heart.

There’s a huff of breath that might be something like laughter from behind him. “It used to.”

Tony jabs at the hologram, restless, and thinks of Pepper, beautiful Pepper, walking unscathed from the fire.

“It’s a wonder you haven’t blown up yet,” he mutters, a little sulky, and ignores the snort from the doorway. 

“SHIELD isn’t that careless,” comes the reply, a thread of amusement through it, and Tony jabs at a piece of the shrapnel and scowls when his finger goes through it. 

“They’ll send agents against gods carrying untested experimental weapons, but not inject them with experimental healing tech?”

“Facing Loki was a personal decision, not a SHIELD directive,” is the answer, quiet and a little sad but not apologetic. 

“It was a stupid decision,” Tony tells him, sharply, slashing a hand through his holographic heart. 

“We both seem to excel at those,” comes the dry response. “Good luck with Extremis, Mister Stark.”

“JARVIS, holograms off,” snaps Tony, but Phil Coulson is already gone.


End file.
